Figure 5.

Ginseng pretreatment attenuates spatiotemporal reactive astrogliosis induced by pdMCAO. (A) Schematic representation of infarct area on day 1 and day 3 after pdMCAO; and open squares indicate the area in the cortex and striatum used for micrographic examination. (B) The representative photographs of GFAP-positive astrocytes in the ipsilateral cortex and striatum. Scare bar: 100 μm. Quantifications of the total number of GFAP positive astrocytes and the percentage of reactive astrocytes in the ipsilateral cortex (C,D) and striatum (E,F). In cortex, compared with Veh-pretreatment WT group, Ginseng pretreatment did not affect the dramatic increase on day 1, but significantly preserved pdMCAO induced loss of the total number of astrocytes on day 3 in WT group (C), whereas the percentages of reactive astrocytes were significantly lower in Ginseng pretreated WT group compared to Veh-pretreated WT group on both day 1 and day 3 (D). Nrf2 absence exacerbated the astrocytes loss on day 3 after pdMCAO. However, in striatum, Ginseng pretreatment did not affect the increase of the total number of astrocytes (E), but only reduced the percentage of reactive astrocytes on day 3 (F). Statistical analysis was performed using two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post-tests. n = 4–5 per group. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ^#P < 0.05, ^ΔP < 0.05, ^ΔΔP < 0.01, ^ΔΔΔP < 0.001. GFAP: glial fibrillary acidic protein.